Pictures General Motors is winding up its autonomous taxi biz Cruise.

A statement published Tuesday states the automotive behemoth hasn't given up on self-driving cars, but will be looking to build the technology – which it calls Super Cruise – into personal vehicles instead. The company plans to take the next six months to "refocus Cruise's operations" – which it predicted will save a billion a year in operating costs.

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Where dreams go to die ... Cruise's parking lot of robotaxis in San Francisco back in November, when the vehicles were awaiting their fate

"GM is committed to delivering the best driving experiences to our customers in a disciplined and capital efficient manner," asserted Mary Barra, chair and CEO of GM, in the [2]canned statement .

"Cruise has been an early innovator in autonomy, and the deeper integration of our teams, paired with GM’s strong brands, scale, and manufacturing strength, will help advance our vision for the future of transportation."

Get your motor running

GM bought Cruise in 2016 for an estimated $1 billion, just three years after the startup was founded by Dan Kan and Kyle Vogt. Cruise began testing its self-driving tech on California roads in 2015, and appeared to make good progress.

By 2018 Cruise raised around $4 billion in funding and General Motors' chief technology officer Jon Lauckner [3]told us fully autonomous taxis would be on the road by the following year – but later [4]revised his estimate , citing safety grounds. In October 2021, California [5]granted Cruise and rival Waymo permission to run limited autonomous taxi service trials, and Vogt took the first trip himself.

[6]Cruise's valuation halved after its driverless car hit and dragged a woman

[7]Waymo robotaxis set to cruise past red tape into LA and beyond

[8]Baidu's robotaxi division to wheel into profit next year

[9]Chinese car brands hit accelerator on road tests for level three autonomous driving tech

In February 2022 Cruise’s service was made available to the general public – but it was soon clear there were significant problems. Within months the cars had blocked fire trucks on their way to a blaze, drove at night without lights, and [10]stopped moving outside a music festival. In August 2023 a Cruise hit a fire truck, leading San Francisco to demand the outfit’s fleet [11]be reduced by half.

Later that month, a pedestrian suffered minor injuries after getting hit by a Cruise, and in October of the same year a robocab not only hit a San Franciscan, but then [12]parked on top of her.

California authorities pulled the biz's license to operate, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [13]launched an [14]investigation that culminated in a $1.5 million fine.

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'May stop quickly' indeed ... Somewhat prescient warning on the back of a Cruise

Shortly afterwards Vogt [16]left Cruise, swiftly [17]followed by nine other executives. Meanwhile, GM quietly shelved plans to build a self-driving van. Cruise admitted that its cars still needed humans in the driving seat, and [18]pulled its fleet off the road.

They were never to return without a driver.

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When Lauckner bragged to The Register six years ago about how soon autonomous vehicles would be roaming the streets, rivals like Uber, Tesla and Google-backed Waymo were all playing catchup.

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That's not the case now, six years is an eon in tech, and even if passengers and regulators forgave Cruise its past indiscretions, a comeback would be hard. ®

Bootnote: The graveyard of the auto-cabs

By chance, this vulture was going to a concert one night in a less than salubrious part of San Francisco last month, and happened to notice what appears to be the final parking place for the unused Cruises.

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A sad end ... What appeared to be hundreds of parked-up now-defunct robotaxis operated by Cruise

Security was pretty tight, though they didn't mind your humble hack taking a few pictures of what appears to be a sad end to an idea once valued in the billions.

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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/12/10/cruise.jpg

[2] https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2024/dec/1210-gm.html

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/09/first_autonomous_vehicles/

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/24/gm_cruise_cars_delay/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/03/amazons_astro_home_ai_bot/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/04/cruises_valuation_halved_after_its/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/waymo_expansion/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/17/apollo_go_profitable/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/04/china_autonomous_driving_tests/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/14/gm_cruise_waymo_robotaxis/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/21/cruise_must_halve_autonomous_fleet/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/california_dmv_cruise/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/17/nhtsa_cruise_investigation/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/01/cruise_fined_nhtsa/

[15] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/12/10/cruise1.jpg

[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/20/cruise_ceo_kyle_vogt_quits/

[17] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/14/gms_cruise_sacrifices_9_execs/

[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/15/cruise_parks_fleet/

[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z1nFMNJudNbAEDmQc2z_rgAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z1nFMNJudNbAEDmQc2z_rgAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z1nFMNJudNbAEDmQc2z_rgAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[22] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/12/10/cruise3.jpg

[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/